WIPP awaits analysis of radiation

Current-Argus file photo
Underground operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant have been suspended until a federal team of investigators can visit the site.

CARLSBAD >> Airborne radioactivity detected over the weekend at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is dropping, but levels aren't yet low enough to allow non-essential personnel back on site, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Russell Hardy, director of the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center, was told the information by an employee of the nuclear waste repository, located 26 miles east of Carlsbad, on Monday afternoon.

CEMRC, a division of the College of Engineering at New Mexico State, has monitored the air quality in and around WIPP since the 1990s and tests for radiation contamination at the facility by collecting a filter from the exhaust shaft each morning and later conducting experiments. The last air filter sample CEMRC has is from Friday, before airborne radiation was detected downwind in the south salt mine of Panel 7, Room 7, at 11:30 p.m. later that night.

"It's my understanding that at some point in the near future we will be allowed to collect our filters, and at that point we'll be able to do our analysis," Hardy said. "Our mission is to report whatever we find."

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, tests have shown there has been no radioactive contamination on WIPP's surface. Deb Gill, a spokesperson for the DOE, said the agency will not speculate on the cause of the airborne radiation but that "there is not a threat to human health."

No personnel were underground at WIPP at the time radiation was detected and all 139 workers on site were sequestered but no injuries or illnesses were reported. All non-essential personnel were allowed to leave by 5:30 p.m.

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To date, CEMRC has identified only four cases since the disposal of transuranic waste at WIPP began in 1999 in which radiation levels have exceeded the normal background levels — once in 2003, 2008, 2009 and most recently in 2010.

Data on the quantity and type of radiation that was present in the airborne particulates below surface, and how it compares to regular background radiation levels, is not available according to the DOE.

"I don't even have that because it gets into the compare-and-contrast point of view," Gill said. "I know that when we do have additional information, then I think that can be part of what is provided, but we don't have that right now."

While this is the first incident that the continuous air monitor systems, or CAMs, have detected elevated radiation levels since waste began being disposed of at WIPP, the monitors did spot something once before WIPP opened its doors to TRU waste.

In the early 1990s, a journalist from Pennsylvania traveled to WIPP and brought his camera, lenses and other gear with him during an underground tour of the facility.

As the reporter was about to leave the premises, the radiation detection monitors sounded.

"When he entered the site, his bag did not set off the alarm and we don't know why but then when he left it did and we were stunned, everybody was stunned," said Stuart Price, who worked in the media relations department at Westinghouse Electric Company, a DOE contractor, from April 1990 to June 1993. "We hung around for an hour and determined that his camera lens had been made with some thorium containing sand and that was it. That lesson taught me that the equipment is very sensitive."

The detection of airborne radiation over the weekend is the second incident underground at WIPP in about a week and a half.

A vehicle used to haul salt underground caught on fire in the north salt mine on the morning of Feb. 5, causing immediate evacuations of all personnel to the surface. Six workers were treated for smoke inhalation at Carlsbad Medical Center but all were released that evening.

WIPP will celebrate its 15th anniversary of processing and disposing of TRU waste on March 26.

"This is going to be our 15th anniversary of WIPP having safe compliance and efficient operation," she said. "Our shipments have traveled more than 15 million safely-loaded-miles. We appreciate the public confidence in our stewardship and again we're going to go ahead and continue to monitor, assess and respond (to the situations) as we have to."

Because of the fire earlier this month, underground activities at WIPP have been suspended until an accident investigation board created by the DOE can assess the site. The Nuclear Waste Partnership, a DOE contractor tasked with managing the day-to-day operations at WIPP, held a meeting Monday morning in which NWP president Farok Sharif updated employees on the latest developments and answered questions. Despite the suspension, rumors about temporary layoffs were unfounded, said WIPP officials.

"No Nuclear Waste Partnership personnel are being laid off due to the halt in operations," said Donavan Mager, NWP communications manager in an email. "As a precaution, some site personnel are working at the Skeen-Whitlock Building on National Parks Highway."